RBS to Accelerate Sale of Citizens

Lender to Create Internal Bad Bank

LONDON—Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC said it would accelerate the sale of its U.S. business as the state-controlled lender faces pressure from the U.K. government to hasten the process.

The U.K. Treasury spent four months deliberating whether to break up 81%-government-owned RBS into "good" and "bad" banks to boost lending to the economy and speed the bank's return to private hands. On Friday, the Treasury concluded that it wouldn't go down that route. Instead, RBS pledged to accelerate the sale of...